About Jim Leach

Jim Leach is the ninth chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Nominated by President Barack Obama, Leach began his four-year term as NEH chairman in August 2009. Leach previously served 30 years representing southeastern Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and founded and co-chaired the Congressional Humanities Caucus.

After leaving Congress in 2007, Leach joined the faculty at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, where he was the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs until his confirmation as NEH chairman. In September 2007, Leach took a year’s leave of absence from Princeton to serve as interim director of the Institute of Politics and lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Leach graduated from Princeton University, received a Master of Arts in Soviet Politics from the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University, and did additional graduate studies at the London School of Economics. Leach holds eight honorary degrees and has received numerous awards, including the Sidney R. Yates Award for Distinguished Public Service to the Humanities from the National Humanities Alliance.

Leach resides in Iowa City, Ia., and the Washington, D.C., area with his wife Elisabeth (Deba), son Gallagher, and daughter Jenny.

Schedule

Time

Event

Location

3:30 p.m.

Q & A session for students, faculty and staff

Dorsey Gymnasium

7:30 p.m.

Lecture: “The Ethics of Civility”

Launer Auditorium

100 reserved student tickets for the lecture will be available at the Student Affairs office in Atkins-Holman Student Commons after 8 a.m. on March 3rd. Tickets are free and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
You must be in your seat by 7 p.m. for reserved seating.